US Democratic senators filed several amendments on Friday ahead of a Senate Agriculture Committee markup set for Tuesday, seeking clearer federal rules for digital assets and to curb conflicts of interest among officials. The amendments aim to define agency oversight, provide investor certainty, and address ethics concerns related to the crypto industry, according to the committee hearing page.
One amendment by Michael Bennet would fold the Digital Asset Ethics Act into the market-structure bill to stop officials profiting from crypto. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats have raised concerns about President Donald Trump and his ties to the World Liberty Financial crypto platform.
Amy Klobuchar proposed delaying the bill’s start until the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has a full slate of commissioners. (Ed. note: The CFTC currently operates with only Chair Michael Selig, who was sworn in on Dec. 22.)
Senators Roger Marshall, Dick Durbin, and Peter Welch added an amendment to include the Credit Card Competition Act, which would bar exclusivity requirements. The proposal would prevent certain issuers and networks from forcing exclusivity and is quoted as “prohibit[ing] credit card networks and certain card-issuing financial institutions from requiring network exclusivity on credit cards.”
The markup was delayed on Jan. 15 after fights over stablecoin rewards and DeFi provisions, prompting Coinbase to withdraw support. Another delay is possible because a winter storm is forecast for Washington, D.C., a development referenced in a social media post.
